2017 Epidemic and Emerging Coronaviruses (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome)

16 Pages·2017·0.6 MB·English

Epidemic and Emerging
Coronaviruses (Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome
and Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome)

David S. Hui, MD

INTRODUCTION

CoVs (order Nidovirales, family Coronaviridae,
subfamily Coronavirinae) are a group of highly
diverse,
single-stranded,
enveloped,
positive-
sense, RNA viruses that may cause respiratory, he-
patic, gastrointestinal, and neurologic diseases of
varying severity in a wide range of animal species,
including humans. There are 4 genera of CoVs:
aCoV, bCoV, gCoV, and dCoV.1 Before the SARS
epidemic, the main CoVs causing respiratory tract

infection in humans were human CoV-OC43 and
human CoV-229E. A novel group, 2b bCoV, was
discovered in March 2003 as the causative agent
responsible
for
SARS-CoV
infection.2–4
Both
SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV are bCoV and belong
to lineages B and C, respectively.1 In this article,
the clinical features, laboratory aspects, pathogen-
esis, and potential treatment modalities of SARS-
CoV
infection
and
MERS-CoV
infection
are
reviewed.

No conflict of interest declared.
Department of Medicine & Therapeutics, Stanley Ho Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Prince of Wales
Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China
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